David Bruckner (The Night House) is set to write and direct The Caretaker, Universal’s adaptation of the novel by Marcus Kliewer that has Sydney Sweeney aboard to star, Deadline has confirmed.
Reps for Universal declined comment. Michael Bay and Brad Fuller will produce through Platinum Dunes under their first-look deal with the studio, along with Scott Glassgold through 12:01 Films, and Sweeney. Karl Gajdusek and Drew Crevello wrote previous drafts of the script.
In The Caretaker, a troubled young woman takes a caretaking job at an isolated coastal house, only to discover she must follow a series of increasingly disturbing rules to contain a reality-warping force — one that may already be slipping beyond her control.
We broke the news of Sweeney’s attachment back in October 2022, when Universal won rights to the property in a bidding war. The project originated as a short story, which Kliewer fleshed out into his second novel, released April 21 via Simon & Schuster / Atria’s imprint 12:01 Books. Kliewer’s debut novel, We Used To Live Here, was a 2024 bestseller that marked Kliewer as a buzzy new voice in literary horror.
Bruckner is a genre filmmaker who most recently directed a reboot of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser for Hulu. Prior to that, he made The Night House, the psychological horror film starring Rebecca Hall that was released by Searchlight Pictures. Other credits include The Ritual, a Netflix-distributed horror film based on the novel by Adam Nevill, and multiple installments of the V/H/S franchise including 2023’s V/H/S/85.
THR was first to report on Bruckner’s involvement with The Caretaker.
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